CONCERNS — Councilman Royal Mayo voices concerns that last minute revisions to an application for $26 million for the North End revitalization plan won’t fare well on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s scoring rubric. Federal budget cuts forced the handful of applicants seeking Choice Neighborhood implementation grants to scale back their projects at the last minute. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — After beating the drum for the North End Community reinvestment project for more than a year, Councilman Royal Mayo said Tuesday he’s having second thoughts.

Mayo told council that the federal funding cuts that forced the U.S. Department of Education to cut funding for its Choice Neighborhood Implementation grants in half forced applicants to revamp their plans at the last minute so the scope of the project they’ve imagined aligned with the reduced funding — $26 million –t hat will still be available to grant recipients.

He said the revised North End plan, unveiled earlier in the day to a select group of invitees, was disappointing since it would address only a remodel of the JFK building and a complete tear-down of Elmer White apartments, with a new, larger building going up in its place. Mayo said council members were not on the invite list but he tagged along with City Manager Jim Mavromatis and Urban Projects Director Jessica Gumm, who were. County commissioners were invited, he said.

He insists the proposed revisions won’t address the core problem HUD wanted communities to focus on with its Choice Neighborhoods program–low- and moderate income population density. Rather than spreading it out, the revised plan would “make it more dense,” he said.

“I’m torn, and the reason I’m torn is the grant,” he said. “(JMHA) got the notice in December that the grant was back on the table. She (JMHA Director Melody McClurg) has been working hard on it, but not with very much input from us. Although $26 million is a lot of money and it’s a long shot that we get it, it doesn’t accomplish what we thought it could. If we do it, the basic plan for housing redevelopment will be confining it to where it already is.”

Mayo said there are enough empty lots sprinkled through the North End community’s confines that, with a little effort on their part, owners might be willing to commit to selling at a reasonable price.

“That would spread the housing out, it will remove the blight of all the vacant lots and spaces that we have nothing on,” he said. “That’s what the grant was supposed to do, it was supposed to transform the community. Don’t get me wrong–we’d get new housing, but it’s not going to more dense, not less, and it’s not going to do the other things we want to do.”

He said he’s also fearful that the revised plan won’t tick off enough boxes on HUD’s scoring matrix to be funded.

Mayo, who represents North End residents, said his is only one vote and he’ll abide by what the majority wants to do, but for his part, he would like to see the city withdraw its support of this year’s application and “roll the dice” that funding will be available for next year.

He said $26 million “is a lot of money, but if we get that grant, that (the JFK renovations and Elmer White rebuild) i’s all we do and we’ll never get another grant like this for that area. Again, my recommendation was, if we don’t have the time to (develop a plan spreading public housing out), that we reapply next year … It may not come back next year, but if we get it this year, it’s not going to change the neighborhood.”

Mayo said they were told at the meeting the revised application is due March 9 and there isn’t time to reimagine it yet again. He also pointed “the city can’t do it without JMHA, and JMHA can’t do it without the city.”

Councilwoman Heather Hoover said she’d like to hear from North End residents, pointing out the Elmer White apartments desperately need an overhaul.

“When I was in middle school, when I was in high school, I had friends that lived there,” she recalled. “And I will say that in the last couple years I had visited someone else that now lives down there, and the apartments look exactly the same, if not worse. Unfortunately, I would say that in the particular housing unit that I was in the linoleum was all tearing up, the cabinets and the kitchens (were in bad shape). I think those residents deserve new housing. I think that they should move forward with (the revised application) and hopefully the $26 million spurs something else. But I understand what you’re saying as well–to spread it out, but those residents down there deserve (better). There’s some that have lived there 30 years.”

“Yeah, they deserve better housing, and I agree with you, I agree with you wholeheartedly,” Mayo replied. “But there’s a scoring system, and I don’t know that we’re going to score high enough based on what you’re supposed to do with that plan, because it says it has to significantly improve the housing. The (revised plan) doesn’t–it remodels one building and tears down and doubles the size of another.”

Mayo told council JMHA indicated there’s not enough time to redo the plan again.

“I already told (the city manager), I’ll back whatever my council says, because it’s just not me–It’s my ward, but it’s just not me. It (could be) $26 million for the city. I thought we should go in and try to change it and contact those landowners (with vacant properties in the Fourth Ward) right now, see what we can do, because I don’t think it’s gonna’ score high. You can get a copy of the scoring matrix and look at it and…see how many points we’re going to score, and then see how many we would score if we did the other things (spread low income housing out), because that’s all it’s going to come down to.”

Before adjourning, council met behind closed doors to discuss issues with the planned stream restoration at Beatty Park, afterwards reporting that the project is on hold due to funding issues they hope to resolve this week.